Reconciliation
by kepulver
Summary: Sigma 6 -- Scott and General Hawk have some talking to do. Takes place after events in Season One Sigma 6 miniseries


**Author's Notes:** Takes place after the end of GI Joe: Sigma 6, Episode #5 "Escape"; contains spoilers for that episode and references to the previous 4 episodes. Written because, damnit, Scott didn't get enough love. Or Spudd. And because it's a question worth asking...

**Reconciliation: **

Scott stood in the doorway of his father's hospital room. Spudd leaned against his leg; just enough that he could feel the robot dog's presence, but not enough to overbalance him. Absently, he reached down and patted Spudd between the ears.

His father had dozed off, a book laying spread open on his chest. From where he stood, Scott could read the title: _Robotics for Dummies._. A stenographer's notebook lay to one side, the top page already covered with notes.

_Perfect fit_, he thought, though to his surprise he found himself smiling at the thought that Dad was trying to learn about robots.

It wasn't going to be easy, getting used to the idea of not hating Dad. For the longest time his father had been not so much the boogeyman as the vaguely redundant presence in his life. He'd always been closer to Mom by the simple expedient that Mom had always been there to be close to.

While Dad had been off fighting Cobra and sometimes Congress, Mom had been the one who'd been there to help him build his first Lego and Erector set robots. While Dad had been unable to talk about nearly everything he did; Mom had been the one who'd taught him everything he knew about being a good mechanic. Dad had wandered through his life like a ghost; Mom had been - and still was - a solid presence. Somebody he could talk to.

Dad? Wasn't. No, couldn't be. Overkill had thought Dad missing his seventh birthday was traumatic, but that was nothing compared to the day, at eleven for crying out loud, he'd realized that he was smarter than his dad. And that his father knew it too and was scared by it.

That's when they'd started growing apart in earnest. He'd been hurt, disappointed and more than a little scared by the realization himself. It just didn't seem fair that not only was his father never around but he couldn't even talk to him about the things that mattered to him.

Of course, now after being hunted by a crazed Super BAT unit, captured by Cobra, taunted by a cyborg in a tube, rescued from said cyborg by a silent ninja, stopping the destruction of the entire Eastern Seaboard with a peeing robot and then being rescued from a sinking submarine base, being angry that he couldn't talk robots with his dad just seemed like small potatoes by comparison.

_So why am I scared to step into the room with him?_ Scott thought as he tried to lift one of his feet and take that first step into the room.

Beside him, Spudd's hydraulics squeaked loudly as his jaw opened in a semblance of a yawn.

"Shh!" Scott hissed. "You don't even sleep!"

Dad shifted in his sleep. "Scott, is that you?" he asked, sleepily.

"Yeah, Dad," he said, moving closer to the bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine, just fine," his father said, grinning broadly as he tried self-consciously to cover the book he was reading. "Much better now that you're back safe. Duke says we have you to thank for our victory. You and -- Spudd?"

"Yeah, well, you've also got me to thank for the school getting wrecked." Scott rubbed the back of his head, fluffing his hair and trying to smooth it back down. "I'm sorry Dad."

Dad smiled. "Don't worry. We'll work things out." He paused, and for a moment Scott could see his General Hawk face. "The damage fortunately seems to have been localized in an older part of the building. And, luckily, since the attack was a Cobra operation we have access to a discretionary fund that can be used to help rebuild that area of the building."

"So...I'm not in trouble?" Scott wasn't sure if he was happy about that possibility or not. On the one hand, getting away with it seemed like cheating somehow but on the other, the phrase "federal pound you in the ass prison" was a lot funnier in _Office Space_.

"Scott, I never said that," Dad...no, he was fully General Hawk now, said. "As glad as I am that you're safe, I'm just as disappointed about what you did. You stole from me. That wasn't just a prank, you could have compromised national security. You could have gotten thousands of people you never met killed. Ignorance is no excuse for this." He paused, the General face slipping and Doofus Dad coming back. "..on the other hand, I was on the receiving end of a very long, very loud and very one-sided talk with Hi-Tech about proper password security that amounted to pretty much the same argument, so I suppose I can't be too judgmental."

Scott grinned at his father, then his face went serious. "Dad, I want to make this up to you," he said. "I was a total idiot and I want to make amends. Really."

His father nodded, eyes shining as he smiled back at him. "We'll come up with something, okay?"

"Okay."

His father looked at Spudd for a long moment, then: "There is one thing you can do...for starters."

"What's that?" _Oh God, here it comes...he wants me to dismantle him. Or give him to the Joes. Or him and me to the Joes! I know what I said but not that! I'm no soldier!_

The look on his father's face was pure befuddlement. "Explain to me what on God's green earth possessed you to make a _robot_ that can urinate!"


End file.
